SECTOR SNAPSHOT Ӏ LOADER CRANES
KNUCKLE BUSTERS
Knuckle boom loader cranes are embracing digital technology; and changing in ownership. Julian Champkin reports.
Knuckle boom loader cranes are a familiar sight. We see them out on the road, tucked behind the driver’s cab on trucks, being used to unload bricks, timber, and other builders' supplies at construction sites worldwide. Their manufacturers’ names –
Hiab, Hyva, Palfinger et al – have also become familiar, even to the general public, through seeing them so often, logos emblazed on these ubiquitous, eye-catching lifting machines. But since the beginning of the year changes have been happening. Some important and well-known names have disappeared, merged, been taken over or restructured. In February this year Atlas, the German company which has been making cranes and excavators in a distinctive orange livery since 1919, applied to a German district court to enter self-administration. Its subsidiaries Atlas Spare
Parts, Atlas FF & Co. KG, Atlas Group Services, Atlas Kompakt, and Atlas UK are also affected. Technically this is what is known in German law as a Sanierung in Eigenverwaltung, a ‘restructuring under self-administration.’ The process allows the current management to remain in control and restructure the company while protecting it from creditors. The company itself said, in March, that operations were continuing as usual across production, service and spare parts. Indeed, in the same month, the company acquired total ownership
Effer’s iQ2655
has SPACEevo intelligent technology
of UK commercial vehicle body- builder Wessex Vehicle Services. And, in January this year, Atlas announced an agreement with Saarland, Germany-based Gergen Kipper und Fahrzeugbau for it to be its new distribution partner for truck-mounted loader cranes and mini excavators in the south-west of the country. Atlas has three production
plants in Germany and a UK sales and service facility in Bradford. It blames its current problems
on prolonged market weakness, the costs of manufacturing in Germany (where energy, as well as labour, is expensive), and on under-utilisation of its factories. Its history has not been
straightforward. The company was bought by Terex in 2001 and was owned by it for a decade; but the change of ownership was problematic. Brand loyalty, which was large in Germany and elsewhere, was stretched by a change of name to Atlas Terex and, more particularly, by changing the brand colouring from its much- loved orange (known fondly to its workforce as Orange Blood) to white. That, say commentators, diluted the brand, and considerably annoyed (to put it mildly) the loyal customer base.
In 2010 the late Fil Filipov, a
famous industry name, bought the company back from Terex for one million euros; the name and the colour were restored. Ironically it had been Filipov, as a Terex executive, who had overseen the
CRANES TODAY 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
